Tag: 1960s

It’s funny; when I look back at my personal Halloween memories there aren’t many that reflect the actual act of trick-or-treating. There are a couple, sure – one year some big kids stole my haul, an actual pillowcase full of candy, so technically a trick-or-treat memory but one I’d rather skip – but by and…

Holiday traditions in the United States grow and change over the years, but there’s one constant: everyone wants a piece of your holiday spending money. These Thanksgiving ads ranging from 1942 to 1991 showcase the different angles these companies took to try and get at your wallet. In doing so they speak to the design…

It’s About Time (1966) What if you had a silly TV show set in a remote jungle location and you had an idea for a second, unrelated-yet-just-as-silly TV show set in a remote jungle location and you just re-used props and sets from the first silly TV show for the second silly TV show…

The Front Line This 1960s training film on the merits of good checkout procedure places an awful lot of responsibility for the store’s performance on what happens in the checkout lane. Indeed, they are “The Front Line” in the grocery war. Seriously, they just casually call it a war. I’m not going to spend time…

1989 Disney-MGM Studios Grand Opening The decision to make a Disney-MGM (now Disney Hollywood) Studios theme park was an odd one for the company. This 1989 television special celebrating the opening of the park is filled with similarly odd decisions. Disney-MGM was the third Florida park, coming after EPCOT but before Animal Kingdom. Where the Magic…

Invasion of Nintendo – Super Nintendo Infomercial It’s always weird when Nintendo tries to be cool. Cool just isn’t their thing. This 1995 infomercial for the Super Nintendo is a perfect example of my point; it sets out to showcase the system’s lineup in an edgy, gritty way and it comes off looking like when the chaperones…

Isaac Asimov’s Robots VHS Mystery Game This 1986 VHS game envisioned a murder mystery set in the universe of Isaac Asimov’s Robot books. Loosely based on the book Caves of Steel, it’s an ambitious effort and carries a high production value – particularly for the mid-1980s, when so many were getting away with so much less….

Hammerman It should come as no surprise that MC Hammer, he of the pop charts and the parachute pants and the very-safe-edginess and the runaway early-90s success, had his own cartoon. Hammerman ran on ABC in 1991, and only lasted one season. (My computer keeps trying to correct Hammerman to Hamilton. Guessing this is the only time those…

Mr. Ed’s Christmas Story What holiday season would be complete without the ritual viewing of that one Christmas episode of that one show about the horse that can secretly talk and makes life miserable for the awkward suburban man who owns a horse that can secretly talk? Mr. Ed’s Christmas Story opens with Ed and Wilbur…

Homes Of The Future Walter Cronkite takes us on a 1967 journey through the home of 2001. Like most “blank-of-the-future” media from the ’50s and ’60s, lots of predictions hit the mark and others are way off. A house with a recirculated water supply, drawing power from its own fuel cells, and a central point…